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Nov. 22nd/23rd Severe Threat


andyhb

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Speaking of models, 00z NAM is out...

And not to stoke the fire or anything, but here's a snippet out of BMX's PIS for tomorrow:

I saw this. It will be interesting to see what the next few model runs do and to get a look at what the Hi-Res models are doing come the morning. All the Hi-Res stuff so far seems to agree with the linear mode but most do not have runs that are into the best dynamics for tomorrow yet. This is just a sensitive area of the country after April 27th and there is another board out there with folks freaking out and thinking this will be another April 27th and I can't stand that. You tweak a few things here and there and tomorrow could be substantial, but the models have been slowly progressing towards a less serious solution with very little jumping around. When you see that, there is rarely a whole lot of drastic change in the last 24 hours leading up to an event.

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DAY 1 CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK

NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK

1159 PM CST MON NOV 21 2011

VALID 221200Z - 231200Z

...THERE IS A SLGT RISK OF SVR TSTMS FROM THE GULF COASTAL STATES

NEWD INTO THE TN AND LOWER OH VALLEYS...

...SYNOPSIS...

UPPER LEVEL TROUGH...CURRENTLY LOCATED IN THE SRN PLAINS...IS

FORECAST TO SHIFT RAPIDLY ENEWD THROUGH THIS PERIOD...WITH THE

TROUGH AXIS EXPECTED TO BE SITUATED FROM ERN OH SWD INTO GA BY EARLY

WED MORNING. AHEAD OF THIS TROUGH...A SURFACE LOW WILL DEEPEN AS IT

MOVES FROM SERN MO NEWD INTO ERN PA...WITH A COLD FRONT TRAILING

SWWD FROM THE LOW.

...SERN TX/LOWER MS VALLEY...

A LINE OF STORMS HAVE DEVELOPED WEST OF THE FRONT ACROSS CENTRAL TX.

THESE STORMS WILL CONTINUE TO SHIFT EWD OVERNIGHT AND SHOULD BECOME

ALIGNED WITH THE FRONT. THEREAFTER...THE STORMS SHOULD ACCOMPANY THE

FRONT THROUGH SERN TX/LA LA DURING THE MORNING HOURS. WIND FIELDS

WILL BE SUPPORTIVE OF SEVERE STORMS...EVEN MID LEVEL

ROTATION...THOUGH WEAK MID LEVEL LAPSE RATES MAY INHIBIT UPDRAFT

STRENGTH. IN ANY CASE...THE LINEAR NATURE OF THE STORMS COMBINED

WITH THE RICH BOUNDARY LAYER MOISTURE AND STRONG WIND FIELDS

SUGGESTS WIND DAMAGE WILL BE POSSIBLE UNTIL THE STORMS PASS THROUGH

THE AREA DURING THE MORNING.

...CENTRAL GULF STATES NWD INTO THE TN AND LOWER OH VALLEYS...

THE BEST FORCING AND STRONGEST WIND FIELDS WILL GENERALLY BE LOCATED

FROM TN NWD...WHILE THE STRONGEST INSTABILITY...MLCAPES TO 1000 J/KG

ARE EXPECTED TO BE SOUTH OF TN. WHILE THIS COMBINATION IS NOT IDEAL

FOR A MORE ROBUST SEVERE OUTBREAK...THE INSTABILITY AND SHEAR

SUPPORT A THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER ACROSS A LARGE AREA AHEAD OF THE

APPROACHING UPPER TROUGH/FRONT. STRONG LINEAR FORCING FAVORS A LINE

OF STORMS EITHER INTENSIFYING OR REDEVELOPING ALONG THE FRONT BY

MIDDAY. THE FAST PACE OF THE UPPER SYSTEM SUPPORT THIS LINEAR SYSTEM

MOVING EWD AT 35-40 KT. THE LINEAR SYSTEM PLUS STRONG ENVIRONMENTAL

WIND PROFILES INDICATE WIND DAMAGE SHOULD BE THE MAIN THREAT...WITH

EMBEDDED BOWS/LEWPS. THE GREATEST WIND THREAT IS EXPECTED ACROSS

PORTION OF TN/MS AND AL...WHERE THE GREATEST INSTABILITY AND

STRONGER FORCING OVERLAP DURING THE AFTERNOON HOURS. THE LINEAR

STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO SPREAD EWD INTO GA/WRN SC DURING THE

EVENING...THOUGH THE WIND THREAT SHOULD GRADUALLY DIMINISH WITH

WEAKENING INSTABILITY.

THE STRONG LOW LEVEL SHEAR AND MOIST BOUNDARY LAYER SUGGESTS A

COUPLE OF TORNADOES APPEAR MOST LIKELY IN THE TN/AL/MS PORTION OF

THE SLIGHT RISK. WHILE WIND PROFILES ALSO APPEAR FAVORABLE FOR

TORNADOES ACROSS KY...AS THE SURFACE LOW MOVES ACROSS THE

STATE...THE VERY MOIST VERTICAL SOUNDINGS AND MUCAPES AOB 200 J/KG

SUGGEST THE TORNADO THREAT IS LOW.

...NC...

SQUALL LINE IS EXPECTED TO BE MOVING INTO AT LEAST NC BY 12Z WED

MORNING. WIND FIELDS AND VERTICAL SHEAR WILL BE QUITE STRONG AND

SUPPORTIVE OF AN ISOLATED WIND OR TORNADO THREAT. HOWEVER...VERY

MOIST VERTICAL SOUNDINGS AND MARGINAL INSTABILITY PRECLUDE A SLIGHT

RISK ISSUANCE ATTM.

..IMY/LEITMAN.. 11/22/2011

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After perusing the guidance this evening, my impression is also that this is unlikely to live up to some of the chatter of recent days. We'll see what the morning brings, and whether any additional instability and/or low-level backing can be realized across the Mid South.

I cannot settle on a preferred view of this event. I really can't.

On one hand, guidance has been trending toward a less impressive result overall, yes. But I'm starting to wonder about a few things.

1) The RUC and the 06z NAM keep winds incredibly backed in the warm sector at least through 18z...the NAM even to 21z...and by this I mean NOWHERE ahead of the cold front veers to greater than 180°. This is a rather substantial difference from the 00z guidance and I feel warrants intense scrutiny. If that indeed turns out, you at least increase the threat for tornadoes associated with the squall line/QLCS...if we get one...which leads me to...

2) I am not 100% positive that a squall line forms along the cold front tomorrow. For this, I've made a list of pros and cons, pro favoring a QLCS/squall line:

PROS:

-Veering-backing winds with height.

-Weak CINH along front.

CONS:

-Shear vectors likely to be at least 60° from parallel along the front. Usually, you would want to see them more parallel.

-Though CVA/large scale lift is present and supportive of thunderstorms, I'm not sure it's overwhelming enough to compensate for the first con.

Which one wins? I'm not sure. The 00z EMC WRF seems to indicate that a solid line never really forms along the front tomorrow and instead leaves activity discrete. I'm not 100% sure I buy that yet.

3) The last several runs of the NAM have been persistent with bringing out a weak vort max ahead of the front tomorrow afternoon across MS/AL. Would this be enough to trigger prefrontal storms? If so, what character would they have? That question leads me to my next few points.

4) When it comes to forecasting tornado potential (not looking so much at strong tornadoes as tornadoes overall), I think it's important to look even more at directional shear than speed shear. If (BIG IF) point #1 pans out, we may still lack a bit in low-level speed shear (though the 06z NAM does have 35-40kt winds at 850mb at 21z in MS/AL), but directional shear would most certainly NOT be lacking (again big IF to #1 actually panning out).

5) I really discourage turning a back to a late November setup with (rather) steep lapse rates (they're even halfway decent in the precip-loaded forecast soundings along the front) and incredible low-level moisture. Those are the two things that most often haunt our cold-season events. If I'm looking for severe weather this time of year, I'd rather have worries about shear over worries about instability and moisture, because if you have the latter, occasionally the former will work itself out.

6) I believe there is an overlooked wildcard in this setup: the Carolinas. Along the lee of the Apps, you get a natural temp gradient at the surface due to the changes in elevation. As large-scale ascent overtakes the area, you can get mesolows to form along this natural gradient. Given that the Carolinas will have plenty of moisture, decent lapse rates, a strengthening nocturnal low-level wind max, and this temp gradient, I wouldn't be shocked if the Carolinas are being sorely overlooked in terms of their potential tomorrow night. This is supported by the 00z EMC WRF, which has intensification of convection tomorrow night in nrn GA and the Piedmont.

Overall, I'm about as unsure about tomorrow's outcome as I've felt about any severe event in a long time. I could see it going multiple ways. One would be that the system is simply not strong enough to keep flow backed enough at the sfc, and thus the winds veer out, and with there not being a ton of linear forcing, we don't even see a decent squall line tomorrow. That's one extreme. The other extreme is that we once again have to play catchup w/r/t LL shear tomorrow, and we see a few tornadic supercells in MS/AL, with potentially another max in the event in the Piedmont of the Carolinas. That would be the max that I could forsee. To be honest, I don't know where tomorrow lies. I don't think anyone will know until just before we get rolling.

I hope this makes sense and isn't too convoluted.

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I just saw those. Wouldn't be surprised to see a few watches go up over the next 1-2 hours. Also a nasty bow echo went through just to the south of Jackson, MS.

Watch likely to go out soon for portions of Alabama and Mississippi... The storms firing up north of Mobile certainly need to be watched over the next hour or so... They are INCREDIBLY warm out that way and getting more unstable by the minute. It's going to be an interesting day for them....

EDIT: It's now a Tornado WATCH until 5 PM local time... Some of the storms are really starting to blossom in that 1000 J/kg MLCAPE....

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There is the watch...

DISCUSSION...A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS OVER CENTRAL MS HAS INTENSIFIED

AND ACCELERATED DURING THE PAST HOUR...AND WILL TRACK ACROSS THE

WATCH AREA DURING THE NEXT FEW HOURS. STRONG WINDS ALOFT AND

MESOSCALE ORGANIZATION OF LINE WILL POSE A THREAT OF DAMAGING WINDS.

ALSO...ISOLATED DISCRETE CELLS FORMING AHEAD OF THE LINE MAY BECOME

SUPERCELLULAR WITH A RISK OF DAMAGING WINDS OR ISOLATED TORNADOES.

Hazar

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SPC's thinking the severe threat isn't as great as was originally thought:

DAY 1 CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK

NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK

0200 PM CST TUE NOV 22 2011

VALID 222000Z - 231200Z

...THERE IS A SLGT RISK OF SVR TSTMS OVER A PORTION OF THE SERN

STATES...

...SERN STATES...

SEVERE PROBABILITIES HAVE BEEN LOWERED FROM MUCH OF THE TN VALLEY

INTO ERN KY DUE TO LIMITED BUOYANCY. OTHERWISE...PRE-FRONTAL LINE OF

STORMS CONTINUES FROM SERN TN SWWD THROUGH N-CNTRL AL TO THE MS-AL

BORDER TO SRN LA. STRONGEST STORMS ARE MOVING INTO EXTREME WRN AL.

OTHER MORE DISCRETE ACTIVITY IS DEVELOPING IN WARM SECTOR OVER CNTRL

AND SRN AL WHERE INFLUX OF HIGHER THETA-E AIR EXISTS AND THE WEAKLY

CAPPED BOUNDARY LAYER HAS BECOME MORE UNSTABLE. MLCAPE REMAINS

MARGINAL DUE TO WEAK MID LEVEL LAPSE RATES...BUT THE BEST

SHEAR/INSTABILITY PARAMETER SPACE RESIDES ACROSS CNTRL AND S-CNTRL

AL AS OF LATE THIS AFTERNOON WITH 0-2 KM STORM RELATIVE HELICITY ON

THE ORDER OF 150-250 M2/S2. STORMS IN THIS REGION WILL REMAIN

CAPABLE OF PRODUCING ISOLATED DAMAGING WIND AND PERHAPS ISOLATED

TORNADOES.

SEVERE THREAT WILL DEVELOP EWD THROUGH GA AND THE CAROLINAS THIS

EVENING AND TONIGHT IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE MIGRATORY UPPER TROUGH

AND ITS ATTENDANT LLJ. THE KINEMATIC ENVIRONMENT WILL REMAIN

FAVORABLE FOR ORGANIZED SEVERE STORMS WITH STRONG DEEP LAYER SHEAR

AND LARGE HODOGRAPHS. HOWEVER...PRIMARY LIMITING FACTOR WILL

CONTINUE TO BE WEAK INSTABILITY AND AN OVERALL MARGINAL

THERMODYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT. FOR THIS REASON...CONFIDENCE IN A MORE

WIDESPREAD SEVERE EVENT DECREASES WITH EWD EXTENT INTO THE

CAROLINAS...BUT AREA WILL CONTINUE TO BE MONITORED.

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Looks like Tennessee and North Carolina can rest easy. Like the MD fading Tenn. Alabama stuff trying, but I'd start looking fwd to a national championship for excitement. Weather prolly won't deliver today, which is just as well for rattled nerves. Straight winds are possible but just not quite enough for torn.

A differential heating boundary is setting up E/W approximately along I-20 from BHM to ATL; however, wind fields are sloppy. Okolona, Miss profiler (closest I can get) still shows veer, back, veer. The lower 3,000 FT is hosed from previous convection, but you can extrapolate. Remember most recent is left on these. However the right, approximate pre-storm environment in AL, also shows the slight but unfavorable veer, back, veer. Finally the main trough is positively tilted, lumbering, and starting to shear out on its way from Texas.

All in all I think the Mets fading this are right on. It is a nice change from hype journalism. Happy I got my secondary WF idea right, but also happy for the good people of Alabama that storms are so linear.

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mcd2357.gif

THE THREAT FOR SVR TSTMS MAY INCREASE DURING THE NEXT FEW HRS ACROSS

PORTIONS OF E-CNTRL/SERN AL...CNTRL GA...AND WRN SC. TRENDS WILL

CONTINUE TO MONITORED FOR THE POSSIBLE ISSUANCE OF A WW

EAST/NORTHEAST OF TORNADO WATCH 895.

RECENT VISIBLE SATELLITE TRENDS SUGGEST BOUNDARY LAYER

DESTABILIZATION IS UNDERWAY WELL IN ADVANCE OF A SYNOPTIC COLD FRONT

CURRENTLY ALONG THE MS RIVER. NNE-SSW-ORIENTED BANDS OF

LOOSELY-ORGANIZED...WAA-INDUCED CONVECTION ARE STREAMING NEWD OVER

PORTIONS OF ERN AL AHEAD OF A LEADING-LINE/TRAILING-STRATIFORM MCS

THAT RECENTLY PUSHED EAST OF THE AL/MS BORDER...WHICH WAS

RESPONSIBLE FOR DMGG WIND GUSTS ACROSS PORTIONS OF E-CNTRL MS BUT IS

CURRENTLY LOSING SOME ORGANIZATION. E OF THIS MCS...MLCAPE VALUES

HAVE CLIMBED TO 500-1000 J/KG S OF I-20...WITH LOWER VALUES FARTHER

NORTH. AND...WITH THE APPROACH OF A MID-LEVEL SHORTWAVE

TROUGH...DEEP-LAYER ASCENT IS FORECAST TO INCREASE DURING THE NEXT

FEW HRS...AND SFC PRESSURE FALLS AOA 2 MB PER 2 HRS HAVE ALREADY

BEEN NOTED NORTH OF I-20. AS THE ASCENT IS AUGMENTED BY EFFECTIVE

BULK SHEAR MAGNITUDES INCREASING TO 35-45 KT...ONGOING CONVECTION

ACROSS AL MAY DEEPEN/ORGANIZE DURING THE NEXT FEW HRS AS IT

APPROACHES GA/SC. DMGG WIND GUSTS WILL BE THE PRIMARY THREAT WITH

QLCS AND LEWP STRUCTURES. HOWEVER...WITH LOW-LEVEL HODOGRAPHS

FORECAST TO ENLARGE UPON INTENSIFICATION OF THE 925-850-MB FLOW

/EFFECTIVE SRH VALUES REACHING 150-300 M2/S2 BY AROUND 00Z/...THE

TORNADO THREAT WILL BE NON-ZERO. CONVECTIVE TRENDS WILL BE MONITORED

FOR THE POTENTIAL ISSUANCE OF A WW...WITH A GREATER CHANCE FOR

ISSUANCE AFTER 23Z.

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HE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PEACHTREE CITY HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...

SOUTHEASTERN HEARD COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL GEORGIA

NORTHERN TROUP COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL GEORGIA

* UNTIL 645 PM EST

* AT 604 PM EST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO 12 MILES WEST OF

LAGRANGE...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH.

* OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO

HOGANSVILLE AND CORINTH.

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New watch issued:

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URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED

TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 896

NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK

615 PM EST TUE NOV 22 2011

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A

TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF

CENTRAL GEORGIA

EFFECTIVE THIS TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING FROM 615 PM

UNTIL 200 AM EST.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 1 INCH IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS

TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

DISCUSSION...PRE-FRONTAL BAND OF TSTMS CONTINUE TO THRIVE ACROSS

ECNTRL/SRN AL AND WILL MOVE ENE INTO CNTRL GA THROUGH THE EVE.

PRESENCE OF SUFFICIENT LLVL/DEEP LAYER SHEAR WILL ENCOURAGE EMBEDDED

ROTATING STRUCTURES WITH BRIEF TORNADOES. OTHERWISE...LEWPS/BOWS

WILL GIVE LOCAL DMGG WIND GUSTS AND SMALL HAIL.

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